Children of the Sun God
by KelinciHutan
Summary: After the Battle of Olympus, Apollo runs into some of his children before they return to camp.


**Warnings**: angst  
**Spoilers**: …Caveat lector.  
**Disclaimer**: _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_, and every other character or thing from that universe in this story are the property of Rick Riordan, Warner Brothers, or both. Any original characters or ideas can be disputed over by those two entities, presuming that they should ever deign to want one of them. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.  
**Author's Notes**: After rereading book five, I came back to this fic. It is slightly depressing, but I've tried to end on a somewhat upbeat note.

* * *

Apollo was, of the Twelve Olympians, one of the most easy-going. Probably the most easy-going, actually. Athena wouldn't incinerate you if you made her mad, but she would if she thought you were a liability. She was pretty ruthless. Everyone else on the council was…touchy, in their own ways. But he wasn't. At least, not as much. Although he had trouble keeping the mortals straight. There were so many of them and they didn't keep very well.

This is probably why he hadn't really minded hearing Percy Jackson tell off the Olympian council. Well, that and the fact that of everyone there, he was one of the few that had almost nothing to be ashamed of. None of _his_ children ever spent more than one night in the Hermes cabin. And he used to claim them even faster than that, except he realized that set them a little too far apart from the other demigods at Camp Half-Blood and then they had trouble making friends afterwards, which wasn't something he wanted to do. Dionysus tended to claim his kids quick, too, for all that he was a grumpy bastard.

Honestly, Zeus' stupid rules were really ridiculous. Just because _he_ was a terrible father (as Apollo knew from experience) it didn't mean that everyone would be! Apollo _liked_ his kids. They were fun and funny and loved to have a good time. He had a sneaking suspicion that they probably threw some awesome parties (with fantastic music, of course), but the Lord of the Sky was a complete commitment phobe and made everyone else play "hands off" with their kids, too, so Apollo had never actually _gone_ to one of his children's parties and didn't know for sure.

So he'd been able to listen to Percy's list of demands with a private agreement and a token protest. He'd been about to say he had nothing to be ashamed of and then the child had _interrupted him_!

Actually, that bit had been kind of funny.

So when he left the counsel, still chuckling to himself, he found himself gravitating towards the area his children had set up a medical tent. Everyone was gone now, of course, but he could at least look and see.

Even being the god of prophecy didn't prepare him for what he saw when he stepped inside, though.

There were neat rows of field hospital beds, and everything was clean and organized. Not a single bed was unmade, and every tool and instrument was put away. The whole tent was still and silent.

And on each of the beds, there was a body wrapped in a shroud of one of the Olympians.

He walked unhappily along the rows, noting three golden shrouds and exited the back of the tent to find two more neat rows of covered corpses. Out here, there was only one golden shroud, but it was impossibly tiny. "Oh, no," he sighed, heart breaking a little. He pulled back the wrappings around the head to reveal the face of his daughter Lucy. She had been ten years old, the youngest camper in his cabin.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead, already going cold, and wished he had blown off the council entirely. Or even Typhon and come back to Olympus yesterday. He was the god of medicine and he hadn't been here to save his own children.

"We're not quite ready to move her back to camp, yet," a heavy voice said behind him. "Are you an Aphrodite? You can help us finish out putting cabins to everyone."

Apollo laughed humorlessly. "No. No, I'm not a camper." He turned to see Will Solace standing there. Under almost any other circumstances, the look of surprise and slight hopefulness would have kept Apollo smiling for the rest of the day.

"Dad…" Will said in shock, obviously not able to come up with any words to follow it.

"Who," Apollo demanded in a dangerously calm voice, "put Lucy anywhere near that fight?"

Will's expression changed into one of utter misery. "Michael."

"Where is he?"

"We don't know," Will replied. "He's missing. We haven't seen him since…Brooklyn. Lucy sneaked into the fight and so Michael told her to stay with me, since I was a medic. He thought she'd be safer that way. She… I didn't even see when it happened… I just turned and there was an arrow…" His speech tumbled to a stop and Apollo, not knowing what else to do walked over and gave Will a hug.

As it turned out, this was the right decision, but Will actually burst into tears. He wrapped his arms around Apollo and held on as tight as he could. Apollo rubbed his hair and back and gave in—for the first time in a long time—to holding his son and comforting him.

He heard a gasp and looked up to see Kayla and Austin, two more of his children staring at them in stunned astonishment. Without letting go of Will, who was still sobbing, he held out an arm to them and they both crashed into him. Neither of them were crying, but they both held him tightly, like they were afraid they'd never see him again. And, he realized in a moment of near-total despair, that they might not.

_I wish I could always keep them close_, he thought unhappily. But all three of them were already pulling back. Will wasn't even crying anymore, and he looked a bit embarrassed that he had at all. Apollo would've given half the universe to make it so his son wouldn't be embarrassed for his own father to see him crying.

"We have to get back to work," Kayla said sadly. She looked to Will. "We came to tell you that Argus has brought the van back."

Will nodded unsteadily.

Apollo looked at Lucy and said, "How many of—"

"Eleven," Austin broke in, apparently unwilling to hear Apollo say out loud that any of his brothers or sisters were dead.

"We think," Will added. "We can…" He took a deep breath and tried again. "We can only account for twelve of us right now."

Apollo closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment and then said, "I wish I had anything else to say, but…you twelve are the only ones left."

Austin looked at him curiously.

"God of prophecy. I know things," Apollo sighed. "Even things I wish I could never know."

Kayla turned her face away, blinking hard. Apollo reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, Kayla. It's been a tough day."

"But you're _here_ and we can't even _stay_!" she protested. "It's… I just…" She turned away, and stormed off, angrily.

"She's not…" Austin began slowly.

Apollo sighed. "She's right. It's not like you're far away during the summers, but I still never see any of you. I wish it were different, but it isn't. And if she's angry at me for that, then it's all right. It's safer than being angry at Zeus and I'd rather have her mad at me than in danger from him."

"Dad!" Will said, clearly protesting.

He smiled sadly. "Why do you think I claim all of you?" he asked. "There's not one of my children who comes to camp who I don't claim. I really like you kids. And I'm so proud of all of you for how you've held up these past few days. If it were allowed, we'd hang out all the time."

Will looked like he was torn between delight at hearing this and misery at knowing what they couldn't have. Austin swallowed and said, "I'll tell Kayla. When she calms down. I think she'll appreciate that."

Apollo sighed. "I hope so." He looked around. "Don't worry about your brothers and sisters. I'll take their bodies to camp."

Will nodded. "Thanks."

"Shut your eyes," Apollo instructed, not wanting to risk hurting them with his true nature. Once their eyes were firmly closed, he vanished from Olympus, taking his children who'd fallen defending it with him to Camp Half-Blood. He took them to their cabin and laid each of them gently on their own bunk. In each of their pockets he placed two drachma to pay their passage to the Underworld.

Just as he was about to leave, he felt something. Someone… A new Oracle. Someone was trying to become a new Oracle. Maybe this would go right. Maybe it would take. And if it did he could stop holding back for fear he'd disintegrate that poor old mummy and send his children some quests. Something fun and exciting. And he would start with Kayla.

With a touch more hope than he'd had when he entered, he left the cabin and headed for the Big House.


End file.
